Re: Culturally
solvent

: : : : : To keep you culturally solvent,
Smart has rounded up a cornucopia of the best oddity-possessing museums in the
world which can be visited both in person and online.

: : : : : To keep you
culturally solvent,does it mean that to help you to view these 'cultural' things
without costing you too much?

: : : : I've never heard the expression, but I
am 99 percent sure it doesn't have to do with money. I am guessing that it means
culturally knowledgeable. That you know what you need to know to function in a
society.

: : : None
of which is much help. However, I've noticed solvent being used more and more
often recently to mean knowledgeable, just as ESC says - I suppose it still means
"being capable of fulfilling a demand", except for information, not payment.

:
: The phrase "morally bankrupt" has been around for a long time, so why not "culturally
solvent"--having resources in the area of culture?

: it's simply somebody being
clever and making up an opposite of "culturally bankrupt" [as in "morally bankrupt"].
Once you start, you can get a wave of variations. It means to make sure that you
have something "cultural" available.

There was a mildly controversial best-selling
book a few years back, "Cultural Literarcy," that purported to list those 1500
facts, concepts, book titles, etc., that a "literate" person had to know, or at
least recognize. It touched off a thousand debates, but the title phrase became
part of the language. This new invention is perhaps an expression of things one
should know to stay one step ahead of cultural bankruptcy.